The Discourse Files Workshop will take place at the College de France, 11 Pl. Marcelin Berthelot, in Salle 2 on 30–31 March 2026.

Abstract

The notion of discourse referent was introduced in connection with the idea of a discourse file; a temporary file in which information is stored regarding an entity introduced in the discourse. Subsequently the notion of discourse referent was used somewhat ambiguously to stand for the discourse file itself or for the (possibly non existent) entity it is about.

Discourse files bear an interesting analogy to object files, which are temporary files deployed in visual working memory to track objects given in perception. The relations between the two types of temporary file are worth investigating. What happens when an object talked about is identified as an object seen? Do the temporary files merge, resulting in a working memory file spanning discourse and perception?

Besides dedicated temporary files of various sorts, there are standing mental files which are like entries in the mental encyclopedia. They store information about entities in the environment, gained either through perception or testimony, and they (or their labels) represent these entities in thought. The relations between temporary files (of both sorts) and the standing mental files into which they arguably evolve is also a worthwhile topic of inquiry.

A specific issue arises with respect to mental files that are about imaginary objects — objects which are given in thought but not in reality (fictional objects, hypothetical objects, etc.). Let us call them fictional files. While ordinary mental files are such that their deployment presupposes the existence of the entity they are about (the entity the subject is related to via perception or testimony), fictional files are not existentially committing. The issue arises, whether discourse files are themselves a variety of fictional file, in contrast to perceptual files which are existentially committing (while discourse files are not), or whether both discourse files and perceptual files are existentially committing and fictional files result from a decoupling operation over the more basic type of file.

Speakers

•         Gabor Brody (Brown University)

•         Gergely Csibra (Central European University, Vienna)

•         Sam Cumming (University of California, Los Angeles)

•         Michael Huemer & Hannah Steinicke (Harvard University)

•         Hans Kamp (University of Stuttgart / University of Texas at Austin)

•         Ellen Lau (University of Maryland)

•         Karen Lewis (Columbia University)

•         Josef Perner (University of Salzburg)

•         Barbu Revencu (Collège de France)

We are delighted to announce that Catherine Hochman joined our team in October as a postdoctoral researcher, in a position shared with the CPJ 'Perception and its links with imagination and memory' at Université Grenoble Alpes.

We are delighted to announce that Rory Harder has joined our team as a postdoctoral researcher since September. Welcome, Rory!

We are delighted to announce that Kyle Landrum has joined our team as a postdoctoral researcher since June. Welcome, Kyle!

The ERC project is organizing a symposium on "Modes of presentation, Concepts & Mental Files" as part of the SoPhA Congress at Nantes University, on July 1st, 2025. The participants will be Santiago Echeverri, Michael Murez, Nicholas Shea, and François Recanati.  

A special issue of the journal Klēsis devoted to the work of François Recanati, edited by Louis Rouillé, has just been published. It features contributions from François Recanati himself, project members Gregory Bochner and Michael Murez, and several others (in French and in English). The entire issue is available in open access on the journal's website.